1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for managing the assets of complex organizations. More specifically, the invention relates to systems and methods for managing and enforcing corporate-wide policies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Small organizations are information efficient in that all information can be shared directly with everyone in the organization such that each person knows what the other is doing. As organizations grow in size, internal communications networks, such as an intranet for example, facilitates communication between geographically distinct locations that range from communication between offices within a building to communication between offices located in different continents. The use of intranets and the supporting hardware and software are well known and need not be described further. For example, C. Zacker, “Networking: The Complete Reference,” McGraw-Hill Companies, Berkeley, Calif. (2001), incorporated herein by reference, describes network hardware and protocols that may be used in an intranet. In another example, R. Orfali, D. Harkey, “Client/Server Programming with Java and COBRA, 2nd ed.,” John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (1998), incorporated herein by reference, describes software methods that may be used to develop client/server middleware. Other traditional methods such as, for example, remote procedure calls (RPC), Message-Oriented-Middleware (MOM), or database stored procedures may be used to develop client/server middleware.
As organizations grow, they also become structurally complex and information flow becomes balkanized as each division within the organization generates and maintains information necessary for its operation. In many situations, separate customized databases are maintained by each division to store the information necessary for that division. When a person requires information from another division, they usually must be granted permission to access the other division's database and the data retrieved may be stale. The necessity of obtaining permissions for each separate division makes the generation of organization-wide reports difficult and time-consuming.
Large corporations are also subject to state, federal, and international laws that require corporate-wide compliance. In order to comply with such requirements, information must be gathered across every division within the corporation in a timely manner. Therefore, there remains a need for systems and methods where corporate-wide policies can be implemented and monitored in a timely manner over the entire organization. There also remains a need for systems and methods that allows transparent access to the organization's assets with procedures that ensure data reliability and cost effective data collection campaigns.